RFA Out front on Tibet Coverage

December 12, 2012

Tibetans praying over the body of a self-immolator in Rebgong, Nov. 8. Photo courtesy of an RFA listener.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) continues to be in the forefront of coverage of self-immolations and other demonstrations in Tibet, with The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and major wire services relying on RFA content.

Almost daily, ordinary Tibetan men and women, including a nun and young mothers and fathers, set themselves on fire to protest China’s rule and demand the return of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. By Dec. 3, the number of self-immolations had risen to 92.

RFA reported exclusively last month that more than 1,000 Tibetan students held a mass demonstration in Qinghai province to protest the release of an official Chinese booklet that ridiculed the Tibetan language as irrelevant and condemned self-immolations as acts of “stupidity.”

Chinese authorities arrested four students and opened fire on the demonstrators, wounding 20 and leaving five in critical condition, according to another Tibetan source. The students were also angered by statements by the Chinese authorities calling the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, “the main cause for the split between Tibetans and Chinese,” the source said.